Road To Nowhere
by Xcite
Summary: Spoiler Alert- After the loss of a dear friend Christa and Clementine are left alone, their group reduced to only the two of themselves. The horrid world has yet lots to offer to them after they get separated when the scavengers raid their camp, but unanswered question are left pending. A lot can happen in 16 months; what took place between the two in the span?
1. All Alone

**Hello there WD fans and lovers! This is my version of what has happened between Clem and Christa in-game in the long 16 month span. Be warned; this fiction is rated T due to strong language, possible alcohol use , and some other stuff.**

**Enjoy.**

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**Road To Nowhere**

**Chapter 1: All Alone**

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From that moment on, she knew that she was alone.

She had had lost so many things over the past year;  
She had lost her friends, one by one, watching them all die in front of her eyes, as their last breath left their souls forever.  
First duck.  
She then lost Carley.  
And Lilly.  
And so many more.  
Along...Lee.  
And now, this.

It was never easy to watch someone die. Not for Clementine. Not for her. She looked frantically at another dying soul who had tried to save her. Gazing through that shirt, slowly soaking in red, thick blood she only wished she could rewind reality and stop everything from happening.  
But the only thing she could do was watch a painful death of a dear friend.

"...Please..."  
"...Omid..."

"Please don't die..."

Clem silently gazed at the woman in front of her, realizing she had ignored her long enough until she finally spoke up.  
Meaningless words left Christa's lips and doubt somehow was rummaging her soul and mind. How could they have been so careless? Hadn't they learned enough of living in a world full of hell? One should never be left alone; no matter adult or child, both are always in danger from corners on their own.  
This was kind of similar to Lee's death... getting reminded of that only left a pit in Clem's stomach.

Could this all be a horrid dream? The ones when you scream your guts out in the middle of the night, shaking your head frantically, pinching yourself to prove you're awake?  
No matter how hard Clementine tried, this one wasn't a nightmare. It was all real. She often tried to hide all the red marking on her arms left from pinches she had done on herself, yet to no avail, she understood nothing was going to be alright at the end.  
She wasn't dreaming a nightmare, she was living it.

Reality once again brought her back from being in a corrupt chasm of drowning, and to the scene front of her. Only if she had stuck to them- Christa and Omid- like glue, maybe this wouldn't have happened. Sure, they would have become angry at her, but having an angry Christa yelling at them was way better than having her stare into the empty look on Omid's expressionless face.  
Shy drops of tears caressed Clem's eyes, traveled down her cheeks and finally fell on the hard ground. She was confused; she still couldn't adapt to the fact that nothing's fixed to definite places. People are alive and living in one moment, and moments later they're begging for their lives, and in a fraction of a second they're gone. Like they never existed. Clem had a long way to learn this was the survival of the fittest, and you'll have to either do or die.

Clementine was in a state of limbo for quiet a time, not paying any attention to her surrounding consisting the dead female scavenger who shot Omid right in the heart, or Christa weeping over the dead body of her lover on the ground. It seemed to take ages for Christa to stop mourning over the loss of her love, yet it happened so soon it took Clem off guard. However she wasn't expecting the cold reaction from her guardian.  
Without any further time wasting, Christa got up slowly from that crouched position. Oh, how much she wanted to end her pains right away. But that wasn't possible, was it? She couldn't refuse the responsibility of taking care of her child and Clementine both. Otherwise, if things were different, she was sure the cold metal gun touching her temple would be her last feeling on this world before looking at Clem one more time asking her to forgive her, and then, finally bidding her own farewell to join Omid on the other side.

The woman walked out of the horrid bathroom in such fashion even the dead looked more alive compared to her. Movements were sluggish and staggering, dead and lifeless. And that was what creeped Clem out.  
Clementine was left alone with the soon-to-be walker corpse, and she didn't want to see that happen. It was painful enough to leave Lee to die on himself, let alone see someone become one of "them".  
Mourning in loss and sorrow, Clementine packed her only belongings, ready to head out and leave Omid's lifeless body to rot or to be the food of some walker, yet there was one more thing she had to do before leaving.  
" Water, check." She slowly mumbled while rummaging through her backpack.  
"Talkie, ch...check..." Sobbed Clem with a trembling voice over the cabinet,  
"G...gun..."

Her fingers slowly wrapped over the trigger after making sure she had ammo. The cold metal touching her skin always gave her goosebumps, and that trait didn't leave her even until now.  
She turned towards the corpse which once belonged to Omid, and raised her arms up. A long time had passed since Lee had taught her to shoot properly, yet she always reviewed the steps before engaging in combat.  
"Hold your breath..."  
"Steady..." She mumbled as she aimed for the head. She wouldn't have much time to get away from the place before walkers would pour in, so she had to act quick.  
Then, she went for it.

BAM.

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"I'm exhausted. Can we please stop somewhere?"  
Clem didn't get the reply she wanted, instead a cold, sharp gaze from Christa pierced her.  
"I take that as a no." Her voice was glum and down, she was exhausated and cold. Her feet were sore from all that walking through the woods, and she could barely keep up with the speeding woman. Clem wasn't far from collapsing.

Owls screeched throughout the dark night, being the two's only companions. Christa had made them walk the entire day since they left Omid and hadn't spoken a word either. She only had retorted back at Clem bitterly as replies.  
From time to time, Clementine would get caught between twigs and bushes, tear her dress or stumble. The girl was drained, too tired to even pay attention to walking. Staggering from place to place, she finally failed to notice the tree roots sticking out boldly. Last thing she remembered was falling hard to the ground with a grunt.  
She didn't bother getting up; she could sleep there in that condition for hours-unless she wanted to be walker food.  
"Come on, Clem, get up." The woman in maternity leave paused for a moment and went back to offer a hand at the ten year old.  
Laying on the ground, Clementine opened her eyes to find a hint of kindness in Christa's face. The pregnant woman helped her up slowly and shook the dust off of the girl.  
A breeze raced inside the woods, making Clementine tremble, wishing she had more clothes on at the moment. But right then, Clem felt a tingling, familiar feeling which brought warm memories back, while the feeling itself was cold.

She paused to look up at the dark, cold, starry night to find the uninvited guest which had come to join their company:  
Snow.

Winter had just begun.

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**Sorry if it has bits of grammar mistakes- but I didn't have enough time to go through it another time to fix them. Next chapters will have less of these grammar problem stuff. **

**Don't forget to review! Thank you.**


	2. The Hunt Is On

**A/N: Hello again WD fans! Second chapter's up! Hope you enjoy it.**

**Be aware, this is an I'll-update-as-soon-as-I-have-time type of fiction, so don't think I'll update daily.**

**Whatever, enough talking. Enjoy.**

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What is the definition of insanity, one may ask?

It might be "repeating something over and over waiting for new results". Hah, that definition is only a bunch of meaningless words scribbled down. Insanity is a lot different from what we know, or what we want to know.  
It is indefinite. Unfixed. Unstable.  
Yet itself defines a lot of other things.  
Like happy endings.  
Whoever talked about happy endings in a zombie apocalypse? You're lucky enough to sleep and not be found beheaded the following morning.  
Like survival.  
Survival? That's only a name for struggle.  
Like...hope.

Hope isn't stable, yet it is persistent and durable.  
And that was what kept Clementine continuing.  
Clementine heaved her feet, stumbled and crumbled bit by bit on the hard forest woods scattered on the ground, staggering in a steady pace. One single strand of hope and light was enough for her to keep on and try to survive in this always-changing world, but how did she find it there? A strand of hope, tucked away deep down her soul.  
Her hope wasn't Christa. She was merely her guardian after the incident; Omid's death. All communication bridges were cut off between Christa and Clementine, for she had wept all way since their tragic depart from her love. Only hisses and growls were replaced as responses.  
The little puzzle didn't blame her, although she preferred Christa wouldn't be so hostile to her.  
hostile isn't the right word here, Clem thought, maybe...cold? Yes, that fits perfectly there.  
Clementine raised her sewn look from the ground and moved it swiftly on Christa, who was leading the way. The woman took steps firmly, stomping on the ground from time to time, making it clear for Clem that they weren't going to stop walking.  
It had been snowing for a long time since they had started they journey once more, and it had been accompanying them all the way through the woods alongside cold breezes of winter time.  
"Christa?" Clem asked in a low voice, "Can we please stop?" She trembled as another breeze blew, shaking her thin body.  
The woman didn't respond as she continued her way through the woods, but Clementine had her own ways of getting to people.

"Christa?" This time more firm and somewhat sure, she couldn't tolerate her behavior.  
"Christa!"  
"What?!" retorted the woman, a frown furrowing on her angry yet sad face. She stopped unexpectedly and returned to the girl behind her while she put her hands on hips.

"Can we please rest for some minutes?" Clem hid her arms behind her, and for more effectiveness made a puppy dog face. If that wouldn't work, Clem wouldn't know what else to try since based on her calculations the sad eyes gave her a high chance of succeeding.  
Christa examined her features carefully, taking note of her intention. Of course adults would understand it was only a fake expression, but who could resist that look?

Christa shut her eyes closed and sighed heavily. The woman in maternity leave folded her arms as she went through sentences to say to her.  
"Don't give me that look," Her facial expressions changed from angry and hostile to more gentle and kind, "Okay, but we can't stop for long. Especially in this weather." Her eyes filled with sorrow for her loss and support for little Clementine locked on the child.  
"Okay." Clem smiled softly. Finally, she could get a chance of resting- and also archiving her thoughts away.  
" See if you can find something to eat." Christa requested her after some minutes of sitting down with the girl, closing their eyes in comfort on a broken log on the soil. Clem nodded in understanding, but she started to get second thoughts since a handful of cold winter breezes fondled her hair and raced before her. Clem wrapped her hands around her for warmth before she got up; it would be nice if they were lucky to find more clothes to wear.  
Small shards of snow descended from the sky and landed softly on Clementine's wavy hazel brown hair. She liked snow, she liked it more than anything else in the world. Mainly because it brought back warm memories of winter holidays for her. How she missed running around in her back yard with her mother chasing her around in the snow!  
Yet again reminding her dead parents brought a wave of tears to her eyes. She turned her back to Christa, arms still wrapped around her and slowly walked away to look for any resources that would keep them alive.

Clem had to stay strong. She knew that she had to. If their group were only two people and if Christa weren't reliable due to her bad mental conditions, who would be the backbone of the group? The conditions left her no choice other than staying strong in the tsunami of responsibility. She was only a child, not even a teenager, yet she had so many responsibilities to accomplish. Therefore she had to be strong.  
"Crybaby!" Clementine mumbled with a frown to herself, "You're strong..."  
"...Stronger than any of them..."  
Again Lee's memories slanted on her mind and forced her barriers to break, and she finally managed to stop herself from crying after shedding some tears.  
"Pull yourself together!" She warned herself to keep a clear mind as she wiped her face with her sleeve.  
She analyzed her surroundings: tall naked trees covered in light snow was all that was seeable.  
Clem bent down and tried to pluck things from the ground; maybe something...something would be there, after all finding things to eat picked from the earth was better than wandering off and wasting energy with no result. She dug the earth with her fingers, burying her nails deep down with hope to find something, yet to no avail.

She kept going on, digging the earth up to maybe come up on something useful until she realized enough time had passed. No, nothing was there to find and eat, therefore the best choice was to go back and stop wasting precious energy.  
The girl wandered her way back to their camping site without paying further attention to her surrounding. The forest was creepy and it lacked life, and Clem detested being alone. Her thoughts shrouded in mists, she walked slowly until she stumbled on something laying on the ground before falling.

"Ouch!" She groaned as the girl collapsed on her arm and hit it on a hard stone under it, "Darn it!"  
Clem pulled herself together and sat down on the jungle floor, examining her injured arm. A small but ugly flesh wound, it was definitely going to leave a mark for a while.  
"I need to get this cleaned up," Clementine mumbled a she gritted her teeth together from pain. "I have to go ba-"

Clem's words were cut off as she lay her worried eyes on what was in front of her. What had she stumbled on? It left a pit in her stomach, a feeling of disgust accompanied with fear as she looked at that.  
Her facial expression changed in a second, right as she understood what that thing was- it actually took her a moment to realize what it used to be.  
Her heart was overshadowed by fear as she crawled away in panic with a scream. She pushed her strong feet on the ground, dragging herself away from the horrid thing as her clothes were pushed against the earth, drowned in solid brown colors until her back touched a tree trunk.  
Her chest went up and down in hurry, her lungs gasping for air in anxiety as she sewed her look on the torturing landscape.

A dead body of a woman, with gashes all along her poor body. It looked somehow like the poor thing was stabbed rapidly, although Clem couldn't say so precisely. Half of a knife was sticking out of her  
head and red blood had soaked her beautiful gold locks. Her face was deformed, a disgusting scene in which some parts of her muscles were cut off. The entire body was mutilated in a gruesome way, covered in a thin layer of snow.  
What kind of a monster would do that?

Clem's brain malfunctioned for a second. Never had she seen something so gruesome; even Larry's death was nothing compared to this!  
Something nudged her in the back of her brain, ordering to run away. To escape whatever the place had to offer to her and never come back.  
And that was what she did.

She didn't stop. Her feet weren't hers as she shot up , Clem ran as fast as she could. Her backpack bumping up and down on her back seemed to weigh a ton instead of a few pounds, but that didn't stop her from fleeing.

Running; that was what she was doing. Her hands cold as death and breaths short and quick, she was running for her life. Who would do such a thing?  
Surely they wouldn't spare Clem if they found her either. Whoever- or whatever- did that...even the thought gave Clem chills under the light snowfall.  
A blurry figure soon appeared, and slowly the campsite came to her view. Christa was still where she had been; sitting on the log waiting impatiently.

Clem didn't slow down, even when she reached the woman. Instead she ran to her in that freezing cold weather with panic, trying to inform her of what she had just seen.  
Christa's look was fixed on the frightened little girl from distant, her brows raised in amazement with a hint of fear. What made the girl so frightened that had made her face so pale, buried in fright and disgust? She was soon to find out.

Clem looked back once more before reaching the campsite; she wanted to know nothing was following her. She ran and ran in the woods, in thoughts of getting back to support, but that one last look ruined everything.

A loud bang of a shotgun somewhere near ringed in her ear.

She gasped once again, and fear gave her even more strength to run away as she gazed back. Her grip tightened on her gun right away; she might eventually need it.

Something-or better say someone- was on her track, she could see its shadow swiftly zigzagging the trees and sticking to Clem's trail.

Someone was hunting them down.

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